Dear Physics Community,

MIT Activities Committee has a list of virtual activities here – thanks to Carol for pointing this out.

Physics Events

Odd-even staggering – The masses of isotopes of an element tend to stagger larger and smaller around an average value with increasing neutron number. Careful measurements of this effect can lead to a better understanding of nuclear structure and new physics.  Our new colleague Ronald Garcia Ruiz has a new paper out on a recent measurement.

Light-by-light scattering – in E&M, we teach superpsoition, which can be viewed as the notion that light does not interact with light.  Quantum mechanics tells us this is not quite true and photons can scatter off of each other, called Delbruck scattering.  If was surprised to learn this was observed three years ago at CERN.  A good writeup is here and the paper is here.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Commencement – We heard today a Virtual Commencement will take place on May 29. The schedule is

• 11 am – 12 pm – pre-commencement show with student productions
• 12 – 1 pm – Commencement with speeches from Pres. Reif, Chairman Millard, Prof. Dufolo (economist, 2019 Nobel Prize), and Adm. McRaven. Degrees will be conferred digitally, Corrallaries, ring-turn.
• 1 pm – 2 pm – production by the alumni association

Details to follow.

Remote instruction – Krishna has been arranging 5 minute presentations by faculty about how they are handling remote teaching.  These have been very interesting and today’s were excellent:

• Nicholas Monchaux – been at MIT for nine weeks, new head of Architecture.  He told use about architecture was about experiencing place and how to best bring that online.
• Polina Anikeeva (DMSE) – had produced high qualtiy videos of her lectures for 3.024 (which sounds like a great class) only to poll the students and find they prefered live “awkward” lectures. “They want to feel like the lecture is just for them – not the class of 2016, or 2024 – just for them.”  I think there is a great truth to this.
• Miroslav Kazakoff (Sloan) – broken down the “zoom experience” and showed some really interesting changes the make online more interesting and personal (black background, standing, …) Lectures are about “…not knowing what is going to happen in class.”

Really good – I hope Krishna finds a way of sharing these broadly.  They are very informative about what happens in a residential classroom, as well as remote.

Los Endos

Loosely speaking, a feature of particle physics is that matter interacts the same way as anti-matter.  Deviations from this have been observed in quark interactions.  A big question has been, “Do neutrinos interact the same way as anti-neutrinos?”  A nice Quanta article about how an experiment may be closing in on a hint of whether or not neutrinos and anti-neutrinos  are the same.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Aside from being tax day, April 15 has a lot of other associations.

• RMS Titanic sinking in 1912.  The RMS Titanic had two sister ships – the Britannic and Olympic.  All met bad ends.
• Notre Dame de Paris burned just a year ago.  I was in Paris and saw it.
• Marathon Bombing in 2013.

Physics Community Events

Ryan and Christina have made a calendar for Department Events.  Here are instructions on how to get it.  Ryan also sends an email for each a few days before.

Physics Department

Sound waves in a strongly interacting fermion gas – Martin and Co. along with another group have measured sound waves in a deeply quantum mechanical system.

Event Horizon Telescope observed jets from a distant billion solar mass black hole.  Jets are the beaming of matter and radiation by an intense magnetic field around a compact object.

Many think the ecological disruption from climate change is exponential, like an epidemic.  We just lived through an exponential – everything was okay and then suddenly it wasn’t.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Most of the meeting focused on when and how the restart of research and teaching will happen.  There are two committees: one for 2020 and one for 2021.  From the discussion today, it is clear there have been no decisions made and the 2020 committee is working on when decisions will have to be made.

The research will start first because it is easier and can be earlier.  In the coming weeks, PIs will be asked to develop low-density operation options for their work.  Work may occur in shifts, those in labs will have to physically distance and wear PPE and there will be periodic PPE tests.

For residential education, I believe the lastest a decision can be made is July 1 for students to return in the Fall.  I think the decision will be earlier.  When and how the restart happens will also be determined by what the State and City do.

We will know much more in a week as the peak number of infections comes and goes, I hope.

Los Endos

I always wondered about the entomology of the word “byte“.

Dear Physics Community,

Walden, a game – various what-can-I-do-for-my-kids-during-the-shutdown articles have mentioned a game based on Walden by Thoreau.  I have always been surprised at the mileage he got out of his short economic treatise.  Still, in the game, you can walk around in the woods, unlike the real place nearby.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala and “Research Restart”, Peter Fisher
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

UROPs this summer – the situation is evolving: Cathy, Nergis, and I will meet tomorrow to make sure we are on the same page and you will hear something in the next day or two.

Freeman Dyson – passed away on Feb. 28, obit. in Quanta here.  His mind went everywhere.  My favorite papers: Eschatology (the end of the universe), a technical analysis of why using tactical nuclear weapons in Viet Nam would have been a bad idea, and a novel solution to the iterated prisoner’s dilemma problem.

Slack – if you are a member of the Physics Community and would like to be added to the Physics-MIT slack workspace, please email Christina.  It is what to cool young people using.

Academic Continuity Meating

Advisories:

• Thesis defense – you can request a nice room on campus for your thesis defense.

Los Endos

I had 7 hours of zoom meetings today.  Too much!

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Reread Joan Didion essay from the 1970’s and found some resonance. I also looked at stuff here, which always brings a smile.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala and “Research Restart”, Peter Fisher
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

• Tuesday April 14, 12 pm noon, https://mit.zoom.us/j/632177654 BYOL
• Steven Silverberg – “Peter Pan” Disks: Long-lived Accretion Disks Around Young M Stars, and How Citizen Science Found Them
• Jinghui Liu “Vortices, space-time braids and loops in the membrane of a living cell”.

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

UROPs – the situation is evolving.  Cathy, Nergis and I will send a message later in the week.  The dates I gave were not right, but I believe there will be UROPs this summer. Stay tuned.  We can also talk about them in the Undergraduate Office Hours on Wednesday.

MC Escher – new exhibit in Trieste, Italy reminded me of the cool paper explaining the math behind his drawings.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Advisories

• Virtualizing Experiential Learning
• Letter from Prof. Reif

Medical support facility – open on campus in Johnson Ice Rink, place for members of the MIT community who have tested positive and need observation.  Not walk-in, need to be referred by a local hospital.  Observation and support only.  Burton-Conner serves this purpose for students.  EC used for healthy essential city personnel.

CP* – this coming weekend

Summer Travel: Different options under discussion probably essential research travel for graduate students only decided on a  case-by-case basis, decision probably this week. For faculty, a decision will be made May 15.

On-campus summer programs – no on-campus programs in June.  Options range from canceling everything to allowing MIT housing to be used.  Whether to cancel or not decided this week.  If not canceled, a decision about the use of housing for summer programs in May.

Los Endos

These days are tough – there is so much uncertainty, yet we have to go to classes, meetings, social events, all on zoom and act “normal”.  You can talk about how bad things are, but not too much and, at least for me, a lot of accumulated emotion gets stored up and has to be let out somewhere.

I don’t have good advice about what to do.  I read, run, cook with my family, do my job as well as I can most of the time.  I try to limit contact with problematic people and keep in touch with people I care about.  I try not to pretend that everything is or will be okay, without dwelling on what could happen (NB: Alain de Botton and the Stoics do not agree with this approach.)

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

A good Easter Sunday – warmish and quiet.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

• Tuesday April 14, 12 pm noon, https://mit.zoom.us/j/632177654 BYOL
• Steven Silverberg – “Peter Pan” Disks: Long-lived Accretion Disks Around Young M Stars, and How Citizen Science Found Them
• Jinghui Liu “Vortices, space-time braids and loops in the membrane of a living cell”.

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

I made a mess – the last two days, I wrote about UROP direct funding – the proposals are of course written by the students and approved by their proposed supverisors, what I wrote was incorrect.   Current UROP students: please get with your supervisors and write a proposal.  Supervisors: pleas reach out to your UROP students and encourage them to write a proposal.

We have heard there will be direct funding available and the deadline will be April 21.  This has not been announced as it is still not clear to what extent there will be campus access over the summer.  However, it does pay to be ready.  IN any event, UROP proposals will be needed for funding through PIs or the Department.

Anyons – Frank Wilczek invented the term because a pair of anyons can have any phase when interchanged, so they are continuously variable between fermions and bosons.  This paper claims to have actually observed them.  Is this a big deal?  You tell me.

Academic Continuity Meeting – canceled for Sunday

Los Endos

New cell phone – I cannot resist ordering one of these.

Dear Physics Community,

The week has ended and I do not have much to say.  We are still going and that is something to be grateful for.

MIT Press – has made their books related to pandemic available online for free.

Wash or sanitize your hands frequently – how you dispense is up to you.

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

• Tuesday April 14, 12pm noon, https://mit.zoom.us/j/632177654 BYOL
• Steven Silverberg — “Peter Pan” Disks: Long-lived Accretion Disks Around Young M Stars, and How Citizen Science Found Them
• Jinghui Liu “Vortices, space-time braids and loops in the membrane of a living cell”.

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

Majorana particles – Patrick and Jagadeesh found a new particle in gold – paper here. Majorana particles are their own anti-particles and are found as excitations in topological insulators.  Neutrinos might be a Majorana particle – I hope Lindley finds out for us.

MIT/EMS – MIT students (including Physics students) run the ambulance, a great thing. Most of the EMS crew left, but the remaining students convinced MIT to let them keep operating, so we are safe.  Thank you!  If our student who is involved wants to tell us about it, please send me an email.

UROP direct funding – Direct funding proposals for SUMMER UROP are due April 21.  Faculty: please apply for these.  Current UROP students: please encourage your faculty supervisor to apply for you to work during the summer.  Students who would like a UROP – fill out the form Cathy sent you NOW and we will direct you to faculty with compatible interests.  Faculty can also support UROPs from directly – if you have funds to a UROP, please apply for MIT direct funding to take another.

Summer forms for undergraduates – Cathy sent out a form for you to fill out about your summer plans and if you would like help in finding something this summer.  Please fill it out as soon as you can and the Department will try to find something for you.  No promises except that we will do out best.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Messaging – first part of the meeting was about how to message the admitted students our uncertainties about when and how MIT will ramp back up to “normal” level of research and teaching.  To soon to tell (\begin{rant} I think MIT is 10% too busy.  We operate full out, with no margin.  When something bad happens, we have no excess capacity to absorb a crisis – we just keep going.  My from all this is that we learn we need to build in margins and use the extra time for self-improvement and deep thought.\end{rate}).

Remote teaching – Krishna ask three instructors to talk about new ideas in remote teaching:

• Jacob White – showed a bag of parts that he put together for students to do cool experiments and data analysis in their homes.
• Gunther Roland – teaches 8.13/8.14 remotely with analysis of LHC and LIGO data and a couple of remotely operated experiments.
• Keeril Makan – talked about intro. to acting and intro to composition, with an example :

Restart – in another meeting, we had a discussion of how to restart MIT.  PIs should start thinking of how to ramp up labs.

Los Endos

Google Earth challenges are now on physics-mit.slack.com.  So far, I have not stumped everyone.  Look for daily posts.

Peter

Helping – What MIT is doing to help the City of Cambridge

MIT Press – has made their books related to pandemic available online for free.

Discovering a new particle in gold – paper here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-kffqzfJx8

UROP direct funding deadline April 21

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-to-find-peace-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-be-very-very-pessimistic-1.8734011

Mindfulness Talk

Hard to say what specifically is best, and I suspect it will vary.  But what I think I’m going to do is try to make the weekend start early on Friday. Something like that.  I would advise you just make it clear that this is normal, and necessary.  Not everyone is going to be able to do it as much as others, but normalizing it could go a long way.

Dear Physics Community,

From yesterday – several readers asked about my suggestion from yesterday to close the lid on the commode. Here is why.

My first day working at home way March 13.  The first time I used zoom was March 14.  It has been about a month.  We are doing okay, but it is hard for all of us, some more than others.  There are resources to help if you feel you need help:

• https://medical.mit.edu/community/wellness/classes/mind
• https://medical.mit.edu/community/wellness/classes/body
• https://hr.mit.edu/covid19/resources

or reach out to those around you, including me.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Physics Department

B2HF – Today we mark the passing of Margaret Burbridge, a pioneer of astronomy and astrophysics.  The story here gives a good account of her life.  I’ll only add that I recall an early mentor telling me to read Burbridge, Burbridge, Fowler, and Hoyle and after that, my world was never the same.  The paper, referred to as B2FH is here – please read it.

Pretty cool – MIT news story about ultra-cold molecules (paper is here).  The work was done in the MIT/Harvard Center for Ultra-cold Atoms, which I guess needs to be renamed now.

Thanks – to Ibrahim, Ryan and the colloquium committee for getting the Colloquium on track and arranging colloquia for the rest of the term.  I really enjoyed today’s and, for an hour, was able to think about science and not other stuff.

Thanks also – to David Kaiser and Julie Shah (from Aero-Astro) for the lunch talk on SERC.  They are doing a lot and Physics should try to engage.

In the mess that was March, Ulrich passed away unexpectedly.  Sandi Miller’s obituary is here.  I’m really sad about this and sad that we did not get to do more at the time.  I’d love to hear what the Ulrich would have had to say about the COVID-19 mess.

Academic Continuity Meeting – Canceled, few agenda items

As we get our feet under us in this new world, there are fewer things to discuss, which is good.  Also good is the nascent discussion about how we restart campus.  This is still weeks away, but we need to plan and the community will begin to hear next week.

I’ve put a google earth challenge to the Slack physics-mit#general channel.  Kudos to Will, Melania, Samuel, and Graeme.

Dear Physics Community,

Doing your part – physical distancing at MIT.

Fighting COVID-19 – new New England Journal of Medicine paper (courtesy of Bob Jaffe).

We are moving into the time when many will be infected and hospitals will be stretched thin.  Do what you can to help: keep at home, physically separate when you go out, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. Tony Fauci said he washes his hands 50 times a day.  At 20 s per wash, that is only 17 minutes.  Just do it.  Also, close the lid on the commode when you flush.  If you really need to know why, ask me. But really, just do it. For the next week, be local in both space and time: here, now.

Physics Events

• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Caterina Doglioni
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Physics Department

I read this story in Quanta.  I would love to see a colloquium about the relationship between time and finite digit numbers.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Emergency Hardship fund – MIT Work/Life has established a fund for MIT employees who are in dire need,  https://giving.mit.edu/search/node/hardship. Gift of up to $2,000 may also be made from discretionary funds (contact Heather).

Budget – The Provost reported on the budget situation.  MIT faces three challenges in this regard:

1. Decline of the endowment – as a result of 2008, MIT put measures in place to mitigate against rapid drops in the value of the endowment, but there still will be a lower payout.
2. Immediate expenses – MIT spent tens of millions starting remote teaching, moving students, paying contract employees through May, etc.
3. Anticipated revenue losses through summer and fall – highly uncertain.

The Provost and VP for Finance have already taken steps to meet the anticipated shortfall:

1. Immediate actions – curtail spending, absorb costs locally where possible, approved hiring only
2. Reducing the 2021 General Institute Budget – FY2021 starts on July 1, 2020, so the FY2021 budget will have to be redone.  The rebudgeting will be biased against any layoffs.
3. Keep payout at the FY20 level, instead of FY21 level from the Tobin Rule.

The Provost was asked about layoffs in 2008 and he said there were 110.  He said keeping everyone will be a priority, even with the large uncertainties.  Filling empty staff (*) positions will be hard and merit raises will be small or unlikely.  Faculty hiring will continue at a reduced level, probably. Personal note: I find Marty expresses what he has to say very clearly and succinctly.  The news is not good, but I believe what he is saying and that is a comfort.

Student/Faculty/Staff support – Cecilia talked more about the importance of using empathic and people-centered language as we move into the time when people we are close to are becoming infected.  We cannot shy away from what is happening around and perhaps to us, but we can talk about it in a personal way.  MIT has resources to help but frequently what is needed is someone to listen and hear each other’s concerns. David Randall talked about two groups that are especially vulnerable: high-risk colleagues and those with children at home.  Check-ins can really help.

Campus access – we currently have the LAP list and the people on this list are Designated Personnel.  Should there be a state of emergency declared, this list will contract to Critical Personnel and they will need a letter allowing them to travel to and from MIT.  DLCs have been contacted about what subset of their people should ve listed as Critical.

Ramp-up – Maria talked about ramp-up once the crisis passes.  Soon (next week?) DLCs will be given guidance about information to provide to prioritize who is needed to restart research.  How this will work is being worked out, but PIs should think about who in their group should return to MIT first.  Those who can work remotely should plan to continue to do so.

Los Endos

The last one – I didn’t think many would know about the Hindenburg crash site, but Rachel, Albert, Bolek, Samuel, Will, and Phiala got al (all before 8 am the next day).  I thought this would be a hard one. The default end for a hydrogen-filled airship was to explode – I recall that something more than half ended like that.  If you are really interested in this stuff, this book is a must.

Here is one more. Lat.  35° 0’36.96″N Long. 106°32’49.73″W.

Dear Physics Community,

How far – there is actually some scientific basis for six feet for physical distancing, but it may not be enough. In addition, enclosed rooms present a problem.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 8, 4-5 pm – Office Hours for Graduate Students with Peter Fisher and Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Physics Department